US20110101248A1 - Electron beam sterilizer - Google Patents

Electron beam sterilizer Download PDF

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Publication number
US20110101248A1
US20110101248A1 US12/925,713 US92571310A US2011101248A1 US 20110101248 A1 US20110101248 A1 US 20110101248A1 US 92571310 A US92571310 A US 92571310A US 2011101248 A1 US2011101248 A1 US 2011101248A1
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United States
Prior art keywords
electron beam
vessel
electric current
irradiation
bottle
Prior art date
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Abandoned
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US12/925,713
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English (en)
Inventor
Yukinobu Nishino
Masami Hayashi
Shigeru Susaki
Ryo Abe
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Shibuya Corp
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Individual
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Filing date
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Assigned to SHIBUYA KOGYO CO., LTD. reassignment SHIBUYA KOGYO CO., LTD. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: ABE, RYO, HAYASHI, MASAMI, NISHINO, YUKINOBU, SUSAKI, SHIGERU
Publication of US20110101248A1 publication Critical patent/US20110101248A1/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

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    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61L—METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR STERILISING MATERIALS OR OBJECTS IN GENERAL; DISINFECTION, STERILISATION OR DEODORISATION OF AIR; CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES; MATERIALS FOR BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES
    • A61L2/00—Methods or apparatus for disinfecting or sterilising materials or objects other than foodstuffs or contact lenses; Accessories therefor
    • A61L2/02—Methods or apparatus for disinfecting or sterilising materials or objects other than foodstuffs or contact lenses; Accessories therefor using physical phenomena
    • A61L2/08—Radiation
    • A61L2/087—Particle radiation, e.g. electron-beam, alpha or beta radiation
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
    • B65B55/00—Preserving, protecting or purifying packages or package contents in association with packaging
    • B65B55/02—Sterilising, e.g. of complete packages
    • B65B55/04—Sterilising wrappers or receptacles prior to, or during, packaging
    • B65B55/08—Sterilising wrappers or receptacles prior to, or during, packaging by irradiation
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61L—METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR STERILISING MATERIALS OR OBJECTS IN GENERAL; DISINFECTION, STERILISATION OR DEODORISATION OF AIR; CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES; MATERIALS FOR BANDAGES, DRESSINGS, ABSORBENT PADS OR SURGICAL ARTICLES
    • A61L2202/00—Aspects relating to methods or apparatus for disinfecting or sterilising materials or objects
    • A61L2202/20—Targets to be treated
    • A61L2202/23—Containers, e.g. vials, bottles, syringes, mail

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an apparatus for sterilizing a vessel, now being conveyed, by being irradiated with electron beam, and more particularly, to an electron beam sterilizer provided with a structure for detecting an electron beam irradiation amount in a case when the electron beam irradiation amount exceeds a predetermined reference value.
  • an apparatus for irradiating a vessel made of resin such as PET bottle, during conveyance thereof, with electron beam irradiated from an electron beam irradiating apparatus (electron beam irradiator).
  • electron beam irradiator in a case if an electron beam irradiation amount is reduced by any reason, for example, generation of spark within the electron beam irradiator, there causes an improper irradiation to the vessel, which may result in insufficient sterilization of a resin bottle.
  • Patent Document 1 Japanese Granted Patent Publication No. 4148391 (Patent Document 1) or Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-126171 (Patent Document 2).
  • a sterilizing apparatus disclosed in the Patent Document 1 is provided with a radiation irradiating unit for irradiating plastic vessels (bottles) with radiation, a measuring unit for measuring a light transmission (rate) or optical reflection (rate) to the plastic vessels which are irradiated with the radiation by the radiation irradiating unit, a judging unit for judging degree of sterilization of the plastic vessel based on the light transmission or optical reflection measured by the measuring unit, and a vessel selecting unit for selecting the plastic vessels in accordance with the result judged by the judging unit, to thereby select vessels (bottles) to which the radiation irradiated amount is insufficient and then reject such vessels from the line.
  • a radiation irradiating unit for irradiating plastic vessels (bottles) with radiation
  • a measuring unit for measuring a light transmission (rate) or optical reflection (rate) to the plastic vessels which are irradiated with the radiation by the radiation irradiating unit
  • a judging unit for judging degree of sterilization of
  • an electron beam sterilizing and inspecting system for food containers or like disclosed in the Patent Document 2 is provided with a food container conveying unit for conveying the food containers, electron beam irradiation unit for irradiating the food container with the electron beam, a physicality (physical property) detecting unit for detecting at least one physical property (such as temperature, ozone density, charged amount, color and the like) changed by irradiating the food containers with the electron beam from the electron beam irradiation unit, and a physical property judging unit for judging whether the physical property detected by the physicality detecting unit or the changing amount of the physical property changed before and after the electron beam irradiation is within a preliminarily set range or not.
  • a food container conveying unit for conveying the food containers
  • electron beam irradiation unit for irradiating the food container with the electron beam
  • a physicality (physical property) detecting unit for detecting at least one physical property (such as temperature, ozone density, charged amount, color and the like
  • Patent Document 3 a technology for measuring irradiating amount of the electron beam in term of an electric current as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication HEI 11-248893.
  • the electron beam irradiation apparatus disclosed in the Patent Document 3 is provided with a rod-shaped collector electrode disposed outside an electron beam irradiation window of an electron beam accelerator and along a short side portion of the irradiation window, a driving mechanism for moving the collector electrode in a direction along a long side portion of the irradiation window in parallel therewith in an electron beam irradiation area, and an electric current measuring unit for measuring an electric current flowing the collector electrode.
  • the collector electrode is electrically insulated from an earth by insulating members disposed at both end portions thereof.
  • Patent Documents 1 and 2 both relate to an apparatus for inspecting vessels after the irradiation with the electron beam.
  • an electron beam sterilizer since a transformed X-ray is caused at a portion near the electron beam irradiating position, there may cause a case in which an electronic device such as a measuring equipment, a camera or the like utilized for the measurement or inspection is erroneously operated, and accordingly, it is difficult to dispose such a device as the measuring equipment or camera inside the electron beam sterilizer which is shielded. Because of this reason, these devices are arranged, to carry out the inspection, at portions apart from the position at which the vessels are irradiated with the electron beam.
  • the vessel sterilized by the irradiation with the electron beam is transferred to be subjected to the succeeding downstream-side processes, such as filling process or capping process, with aseptic condition being maintained, it is necessary to maintain an environmental atmosphere through which the sterilized vessels pass with the aseptic condition. For this reason, it is required for equipments and the like utilized for the measurement or inspection to be provided with resistance property against a sterilizing agent for decontaminating the environmental atmosphere.
  • a collector is disposed outside an irradiation window through which the electron beam is emitted and is moved in front thereof, and accordingly, it is difficult to measure the electric current during the sterilization operation of the electron beam sterilizer, and hence, it is impossible to immediately detect shortage of the electron beam irradiation amount and then reject the defective vessels from the line.
  • the present invention was conceived to solve or improve the defective matters encountered in the conventional technology mentioned above and an object of the present invention is to provide an electron beam sterilizer in which when a defective vessel due to improper electron beam irradiation is generated, such vessel can be found and then rejected in an early stage of an operation to thereby reduce a fear of introducing contaminated substance such as virus or bacteria into a downstream side environment.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide an electron beam sterilizer capable of preventing generation of a lot of defective vessels by finding in an early stage where the defective vessel is generated.
  • an electron beam sterilizer including: an electron beam irradiator for irradiating a vessel with an electron beam through an irradiation window formed to the electron beam irradiator; and a vessel conveyer for conveying the vessel, in which a vessel conveyed by the vessel conveyer is irradiated with the electron beam during the passing in front of the irradiation window to thereby sterilize the vessel, the electron beam sterilizer further comprising: an electric current measuring electrode being disposed so as to oppose to the irradiation window with a vessel conveying path interposed therebetween; an electric current measuring unit that measures an electric current value passing through the electric current measuring electrode by the irradiation of the electron beam; a comparator that compares a measured result by the electric current measuring unit with a predetermined reference value; a judging unit that judges whether an amount of the electron beam irradiated to the vessel is proper or improper in accordance with the compared result; a
  • the comparator is configured to compare at least one of measured values of increasing electric current and decreasing electric current during the measurement thereof with the predetermined reference value, and the judging unit judges that when the measured electric current value is out of the predetermined reference, the electron beam irradiation amount is improper.
  • the comparator is configured to obtain an average value of the electric current value increasing or decreasing during the measurement thereof as a measured result and compare the average value with the predetermined reference value, and the judging unit judges that when the average value is out of the predetermined reference, the electron beam irradiation amount is improper.
  • the electron beam sterilizer may further comprise a beam collector being disposed so as to oppose to the irradiation window with the vessel conveying path interposed therebetween, and the beam collector has a size covering an entire area of the irradiation window to thereby trap the electron beam and is grounded and supported in an electrically insulated state so as to be constructed as the electric current measuring electrode.
  • the electron beam sterilizer may further comprise a supply current recognition unit that recognizes an electric current value to be supplied to the electron beam irradiator and the comparator is configured to change the predetermined reference value in response to variation of the recognized supply electric current value.
  • FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating an entire arrangement of an electron beam sterilizer according to a first embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an essential portion, in an enlarged scale, of the electron beam sterilizer according to the first embodiment
  • FIG. 3 is a graph representing a case of measuring an electric current passing through an electric current measuring electrode and then judging whether an electron beam irradiating amount is proper or improper;
  • FIG. 4 is graph representing another case of measuring an electric current passing through an electric current measuring electrode and then judging whether an electron beam irradiating amount is proper or improper;
  • FIG. 5 is a plan view illustrating an entire arrangement of an electron beam sterilizer according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
  • the present invention achieving the above object provides a structure, in which a vessel is conveyed, by a vessel conveying unit in front of an electron beam irradiation window of an electron beam irradiator which irradiates the vessel with electron beam, and the vessel is sterilized by the electron beam irradiated through the irradiation window.
  • An electric current measuring electrode is disposed on a side opposite to the irradiation window with a vessel conveyance path interposed therebetween so as to face the irradiation window, and an electric current measuring unit is connected to a lead for grounding the electric current measuring electrode.
  • the electron beam irradiates the current measuring electrode to thereby pass an electric current.
  • This electric current is measured by the current measuring unit and the measured result is sent to a control device.
  • the control device includes a comparing unit, a judging unit and a command (instructing) unit, in which the measured current is compared with a preliminarily stored current value by the comparing unit, and based on this comparison, the judging unit judges whether the irradiating amount of the electron beam is proper or not.
  • a rejecting unit is further provided on the downstream side of the electron beam irradiation position so as to extract and then reject a vessel from the vessel conveyance path, and in an occurrence of an event in which it is judged, by the judging unit, that the vessel is not properly irradiated with the electron beam, the command unit instructs to the rejecting unit such that that vessel should be rejected. According to such structural arrangement, the fact that the vessel is properly or improperly irradiated with the electron beam at the irradiation position can be detected, and the defective vessel can be immediately removed from the production line.
  • a vessel 2 which is sterilized by an electron beam sterilizer according to this embodiment and filled up with an inner content such as liquid in the subsequent stage or process, is a resin bottle such as PET bottle (which will be explained in detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2 ).
  • This resin bottle 2 is supported at a lower surface side of a flanged portion 2 a formed to a neck portion of the bottle by a support rail of an air conveyer, not shown.
  • the supported bottle is blown with air from a back side thereof and is continuously conveyed to the electron beam sterilizer.
  • the conveyed resin bottle 2 is carried into an introduction chamber 4 and transferred to a carry-in wheel 6 disposed inside the introduction chamber 4 .
  • the carry-in wheel 6 disposed inside the introduction chamber 4 is provided with a plurality of vessel holding means (vessel holders) 8 with equal interval along a circumferential direction of an outer periphery of a rotary body, and the carry-in wheel 6 receives the resin bottle 2 transferred from the air conveyer disposed on the upstream side thereof and conveys downwardly while rotating.
  • vessel holding means vessel holders
  • a shield chamber 10 constructed by a lead wall which shields the electron beam or X-ray (braking X-ray) so as not to leak outside at a time when the resin bottle 2 is sterilized by the electron beam irradiation.
  • the interior of the shield chamber 10 is defined into several sections including a supply chamber section 14 which is disposed on an inlet side of the shield chamber 10 and in which a supply wheel 12 is arranged, a main chamber section 22 in which a rotary-type vessel conveyer (i.e., bottle conveyer) 20 for moving the resin bottle 2 received and conveyed from the supply wheel 12 in front of an electron beam irradiation window 18 of an electron beam irradiator (electron beam irradiating device) 16 , which will be described hereinafter, and a discharge chamber section 26 in which a discharge wheel 24 is disposed for receiving and discharging the resin bottle 2 sterilized by the electron beam irradiation from the electron beam irradiator 16 .
  • a supply chamber section 14 which is disposed on an inlet side of the shield chamber 10 and in which a supply wheel 12 is arranged
  • main chamber section 22 in which a rotary-type vessel conveyer (i.e., bottle conveyer) 20 for moving the resin bottle 2 received and
  • the shield chamber 10 is formed with an opening port 16 a formed in the wall section thereof at a portion at which the resin bottle 2 is transferred from the carry-in wheel 6 of the introduction chamber 4 to the supply wheel 12 disposed in the supply chamber 14 .
  • the supply wheel 12 receiving the resin bottle 2 from the carry-in wheel 6 of the introduction chamber 4 transfers the resin bottle 2 to a bottle conveyer 20 disposed within the main chamber 22 .
  • a plurality of grippers 28 (described in detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2 ) as vessel holding means 8 are provided at equal interval in the circumferential direction of the outer periphery of the rotary body 30 in the bottle conveyer 20 disposed within the main chamber 22 . Further, a plurality of vessel holding means (holders) 32 are provided for the supply wheel 12 , which transfers the bottles to the grippers 28 of the bottle conveyer 20 , at equal interval in the circumferential direction of the outer periphery of the rotary body.
  • the electron beam irradiating means (electron beam irradiator) 16 is disposed in adjacent to a side wall section (upper side wall in FIG. 1 ) of a shield chamber 10 made of lead.
  • the electron beam irradiator 16 serves, as is known, to heat filaments in a vacuum atmosphere condition in a vacuum chamber to thereby generate thermal electrons, accelerate the electrons by applying high voltage to generate high speed electron beam, take out the electron beam into atmosphere through a window foil, made of metal such as Ti, attached to the electron beam irradiation window 18 , and then irradiates, with the electron beam, an article to be irradiated (i.e., resin bottle 2 in this embodiment) positioned within an electron beam irradiation zone or area A in front of the irradiation window 18 , thereby performing the sterilization and the like process.
  • an article to be irradiated i.e., resin bottle 2 in this embodiment
  • An area in front of the irradiation window 18 of the electron beam irradiator 16 is formed as the electron beam irradiation zone A in which the resin bottle 2 is irradiated with the electron beam.
  • the discharge chamber 26 is defined by a wall section 26 a and a ceiling section 26 b from a position near the portion through which the resin bottle 2 conveyed by the bottle conveyer 20 passes the electron beam irradiation zone A.
  • the resin bottle 2 irradiated with the electron beam in the electron beam irradiation zone A is transferred to the discharge wheel 24 disposed inside the discharge chamber 26 from the gripper 28 formed to the bottle conveyer 20 .
  • the discharge wheel 24 is provided with a plurality of vessel holders 34 at equal interval in the circumferential direction of the outer periphery of the rotary body, hence, the resin bottle 2 held by each gripper 28 is taken out by the vessel holder 34 and then discharged outward.
  • the discharge wheel 24 disposed in the discharge chamber 26 also serves as a reject wheel, and when it is judged that the resin bottle 2 is normally and properly sterilized, the resin bottle 2 received from the bottle conveyer 20 is transferred to the vessel holder 38 attached to the carry-out wheel 36 provided for the subsequent intermediate chamber 35 , and then, transferred downward so as to be subjected to succeeding processes such as filling process, capping process and so on. These processes will be explained hereinafter.
  • an opening 16 b is formed in the wall section of the shield chamber 10 and which has a size through which the resin bottle 2 can be transferred to the carry-out wheel 36 .
  • Reference character B shown in FIG. 1 represents a rejecting position.
  • another opening 16 c is also formed to the wall section of the shield chamber 10 at a position through which the resin bottle 2 is discharged from the discharge wheel 24 of the discharge chamber 26 to the rejecting section 39 .
  • This opening 16 c also has a size through which the resin bottle 2 can pass.
  • the bottle conveyer 20 is provided with an encoder 40 , from which a pulse signal is transmitted to the control device 42 so as to always detect the rotating position of the rotary body 30 of the bottle conveyer 20 , that is, a position of the resin bottle 2 held by each gripper 28 .
  • another encoder 44 is also provided with the discharge wheel 24 disposed downstream side of the bottle conveyer 20 , from which a pulse signal is transmitted to the control device 42 so as to always detect the position of the resin bottle 2 , which is transferred from the gripper 28 , held by the vessel holder 34 .
  • a resin bottle 2 to which the electron beam is insufficiently irradiated is specified by the signal from the encoder 40 of the bottle conveyer 20 , and then, the specified resin bottle 2 is traced by the pulse signal from the encoder 44 of the reject wheel (discharge wheel) 24 , thereby taking out the specified resin bottle 2 from the reject wheel 24 .
  • a beam collector 46 serving as an electric current measuring electrode is disposed in a vertically standing attitude in front of the electron beam irradiation window 18 of the electron beam irradiator 16 with the vessel conveying path of the bottle conveyer 20 interposed therebetween.
  • a space defined between the electron beam irradiation window 18 and the beam collector 46 is formed as the electron beam irradiation zone A, in which the resin bottle 2 held by the gripper 28 is irradiated with the electron beam at a period when the resin bottle 2 passes the zone A at an approximately intermediate position between the irradiation window 18 and the beam collector 46 .
  • the beam collector 46 is generally formed of a conductive material such as stainless, has a size capable of covering the entire front surface area of the irradiation window 18 and is disposed in front of the radiation window so as to oppose the front surface thereof.
  • the irradiation window 18 is composed of divided two parts in the vessel conveying direction, and the beam collector 46 has a size larger than the entire vertical and horizontal sizes of the two parts of the entire irradiation window 18 .
  • the beam collector 46 is provided inside with a cooling water pipe line 46 a so as to cool the beam collector 46 to prevent the beam collector from overheating by the electron beam irradiation, and cooling water flows inside the cooling water pipe line 46 a.
  • the beam collector 46 is placed on a floor of the main chamber 22 inside the shield chamber 10 via a support member 48 formed of an insulating material in a state supported by the electron beam sterilizer in an electrically insulated manner.
  • An electric current measuring device 52 is connected to a lead 50 grounding the beam collector 46 so as to measure the electric current passing through the earth from the beam collector 46 at the irradiation with the electron beam. The electric current detected by the current measuring device 52 is input into the control device 42 .
  • the current value sent to the control device 42 from the current measuring device 52 is compared with a predetermined reference value in a comparator 54 .
  • a judging unit 56 judges whether the electron beam irradiation amount from the electron beam irradiator 16 is proper or not (i.e., improper). In a case of improper amount in the judgement of the judging unit 56 , a defective resin bottle is taken out and rejected by the reject wheel (discharge wheel) 24 in response to the instructions from a command unit 58 .
  • the electron beam irradiator 16 is provided with an electric current monitor 60 as electric current recognition unit so as to monitor an output value of the current at all times.
  • the comparator 54 serves to change the reference value in accordance with the variation of the supply current to the electron beam irradiator 16 recognized by the current monitor 60 .
  • the electron beam sterilizer of the structures mentioned above will operate and function as follows.
  • the resin bottle 2 is then conveyed while rotating by the carry-in wheel 6 and transferred to the supply wheel 12 disposed in the supply chamber 14 within the shield chamber 10 made of lead. Thereafter, the resin bottle 2 is rotated and conveyed in the state held by the vessel holder 32 of the supply wheel 12 and then transferred to the gripper 28 of the bottle conveyer 20 disposed in the main chamber 22 .
  • the gripper 28 having various structures may be used, the gripper 28 in this embodiment has a gripping portion 64 , as shown in FIG. 2 , formed to the lower end of the rotary support shaft 62 extending vertically in a manner such that the gripping portion 64 can hold the lower side of the flanged portion 2 a of the resin bottle 2 .
  • the bottle 2 rotated and conveyed in accordance with the rotation of the rotary body 30 in a state held by the gripper 28 of the bottle conveyer 20 reaches the electron beam irradiation zone A positioned in front of the electron beam irradiation window 18 of the electron beam irradiator 16 .
  • the electron beam is emitted through the irradiation window 18 of the electron beam irradiator 16 to thereby irradiate the resin bottles 2 , with the electron beam, which are held by the grippers 28 arranged at predetermined interval to the bottle conveyer 20 .
  • the electron beam emitted toward the resin bottles 2 through the irradiation window 18 directly collides with the resin bottles 2 being conveyed at equal interval in front of the irradiation window 18 in the irradiation zone A, in one occasion, and on the other hand, in another occasion, the electron beam passes through a space between the adjacent resin bottles 2 and is trapped by the beam collector 46 .
  • the electron beam irradiates the beam collector 46 , the electrons in the beam flow toward the grounded earth and the electric current caused due the electrons is measured by the current measuring device 52 . As shown in FIG.
  • such measured electric current value E 1 is increased or decreased in accordance with a time period at which the electron beam is shut off by the collision with the resin bottles 2 and a time period at which the electron beam passes through the space between the resin bottles and directly irradiates the beam collector 46 .
  • the electric current E 1 measured by the electric current measuring device 52 is transmitted to the control device 42 and then compared with the reference value by the comparator 54 .
  • the current value becomes minimum at the time period at which the emitted electron beam is shout off by the resin bottles 2 , and on the other hand, becomes maximum at the time period at which the electron beam passes through the space between the resin bottles 2 .
  • the judgement in the comparison of the measured electric current valve with the reference value is made based on the recognition such that a case in which the peak of the maximum or minimum value exceeds the upper limit reference value S 1 A, S 1 B is judged as “excess” and a case in which the peak thereof falls bellow the lower limit reference value S 2 A, S 2 B is judged as “shortage”.
  • the judgement since the minimum value has a low current value and a small deviation width, the judgement will be more easily made by monitoring the maximum value which is more remarkably changed. Furthermore, in a case where the irradiation amount of the electron beam from the electron beam irradiator 16 is constant, the resin bottle 2 is excessively irradiated in a case when the resin bottle 2 is conveyed at a slow speed, and on the other hand, the resin bottle is insufficiently irradiated in a case when the resin bottle 2 is conveyed at a high speed. Accordingly, the electron beam irradiation amount is controlled in response to the bottle conveying speed.
  • the irradiation amount of the electron beam instructed by the electron beam irradiator 16 is recognized by measuring the electric current supplied to the electron beam irradiator 16 by a supply current recognition unit (current monitor) 60 , and the electric current reference value is changed in accordance with such measured and recognized result.
  • the resin bottle 2 judged to be defective by the judging unit 56 of the control device 42 is specified by the pulse number from the encoder 40 provided for the rotary body 30 of the bottle conveyer 20 .
  • the resin bottle 2 specified is thereafter transferred to the vessel holder 34 of the discharge wheel 24 from the gripper 28 of the bottle conveyer 20 .
  • the discharge wheel 24 is also provided with the encoder 44 , and the resin bottle 2 judged to be defective in the bottle conveyer 20 is traced after the transfer to the discharge wheel 24 , and removed at the reject position B and discharged to the reject section 39 .
  • the resin bottle 2 which is judged as being improper in irradiation amount of the electron beam based on the measured electric current value E 1 from the beam collector 46 serving as the electric current measuring electrode, is taken out from the discharge wheel 24 and discharged to the reject section 39 .
  • the resin bottle 2 which is judged as being proper in irradiation amount of the electron beam, is transferred to the vessel holder 34 of the discharge wheel 24 from the gripper 28 of the bottle conveyer 20 , and then further transferred to the vessel holder 38 of the carry-out wheel 36 provided in the subsequent intermediate chamber 35 so as to be subjected to the filling process, capping process and so on in the subsequent stage.
  • an interval shown by reference character P in FIG. 4 represents an interval corresponding to one pitch of the resin bottle 2 .
  • FIG. 5 shows an electron beam sterilizer according to a second embodiment of the present invention, which differs from the aforementioned first embodiment in the structure of the electric current measuring device for measuring the current of the electrode, i.e., electric current measuring electrode, and other structures and arrangements are substantially the same as those of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 . Accordingly, like reference numerals are added to units or components corresponding to those of the first embodiment and description thereof is omitted herein and only different structures will be mentioned.
  • a beam collector 146 is composed of divided three parts ( 146 A, 146 B, 146 C), which are arranged in a manner insulated from each other, and these three beam collector parts 146 A, 146 B and 146 C are disposed so as to correspond to three resin bottles 2 which are at once irradiated with the electron beam in the electron beam irradiating zone A, respectively.
  • Three electric current measuring devices 152 A, 152 B and 152 C are connected to the beam collector parts 146 A, 146 B and 146 C, respectively, so as to independently measure the current values when the electron beam irradiation is performed.
  • the respective beam collector parts 146 A, 146 B and 146 C have heights higher than the height level of the irradiation window 18 and widths equal to or smaller than the width of the resin bottle 2 .
  • the reduction of the width of the beam collector parts contributes to easy comparison of the measured current values with the reference value because the current values measured by the current measuring devices 152 A, 152 B and 152 C largely vary every time when the resin bottles 2 pass, and moreover, the resin bottles 2 which are irradiated insufficiently with the electron beam can be specified every one resin bottle 2 .
US12/925,713 2009-10-29 2010-10-28 Electron beam sterilizer Abandoned US20110101248A1 (en)

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JP2009249107A JP5560662B2 (ja) 2009-10-29 2009-10-29 電子線殺菌装置
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US20120145929A1 (en) * 2010-12-10 2012-06-14 Yukinobu Nishino Electron beam sterilizer
US20130015365A1 (en) * 2009-04-30 2013-01-17 Hitachi Zosen Corporation Electron beam sterilization apparatus
DE102011055550A1 (de) * 2011-11-21 2013-05-23 Krones Ag Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Sterilisieren von Kunststoffbehältnissen mit Elektronenstrahlung
DE102011055553A1 (de) * 2011-11-21 2013-05-23 Krones Ag Vorrichtung zur Innen- und Außensterilisierung von Kunststoffbehältnissen mittels Ladungsträgerstrahlen
DE102011056628A1 (de) * 2011-12-19 2013-06-20 Krones Aktiengesellschaft Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Sterilisieren von Behältnissen mit Funktionsüberwachung
US20140037498A1 (en) * 2011-04-26 2014-02-06 Fulvio Laguzzi Input or output of an electron beam sterilisation device and sterilisation method
US20150108366A1 (en) * 2012-05-21 2015-04-23 Airex Co., Ltd. Electron Beam Irradiation Device
JP2016505454A (ja) * 2012-11-27 2016-02-25 クロネス アーゲー 放射ｘ線監視を備えた、容器を殺菌するための装置及び方法
US10081448B2 (en) 2013-10-24 2018-09-25 Hitachi Zosen Corporation Container sterilization method and container sterilization equipment

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JP5991651B2 (ja) * 2011-09-05 2016-09-14 三菱重工食品包装機械株式会社 帯電除去方法および装置
JP5791459B2 (ja) * 2011-10-17 2015-10-07 日立造船株式会社 電子線殺菌設備の遮蔽構造
DE102012106379A1 (de) * 2012-07-16 2014-01-30 Krones Ag Messvorrichtung und Messverfahren für Behältnissterilisation
DE102017101745A1 (de) * 2017-01-30 2018-08-02 Krones Ag Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Sterilisieren von Kunststoffvorformlingen mit vorangegangener Prüfung der Kunststoffvorformlinge
FR3088202B1 (fr) * 2018-11-09 2020-10-16 Sidel Participations Procede de traitement pour la sterilisation par irradiation de recipients en matiere thermoplastique
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